On January 25, with the launch of the "fuse" of the new season of S7, Tencent's "tactical game" mobile game "Dark Zone Breakout" quickly ranked among the top 10 of Kuaishou and Douyin's double hot lists, once again standing in the market spotlight.
And this is largely due to the fact that the new version is full of surprises - on the day of the new season, the new map "Prisson Mine" was implemented in the game, and then the largest map "Elmira Mine" and the new vehicle system were also unveiled on February 2.
You must know that at the beginning of its launch in 2022, the game was still not well-known to the public due to its niche gameplay, but what exceeded expectations was that it only took more than 1 year to achieve a good result of exceeding the 100 million global registration mark.
Why can "Dark Zone Breakout" complete the counterattack in a short period of time and continue to lead the "tactical game" from the niche to the public?
When the number of registered users worldwide exceeded 80 million last year, Zhang Hanjin, president of the Rubik's Cube Studio Group, said in an interview with foreign media: "Tactical FPS game users have an unmet demand for a more immersive shooting experience and more intense gameplay, and this demand continues to grow. ”
In other words, the reason why "Dark Zone Breakout" has been able to achieve great results is largely to meet the player's pursuit of "environmental immersion" and "gameplay diversification", and behind all this, its "content is king" gene has played a decisive role, and the content of this new version of the S7 season is a direct embodiment.
The most important update of the new version is the release of two new maps, "Elmira Mine" and "Presson Mine", which are interestingly designed to go to two extremes - the mining area is large, and its area is 5 times that of the previous "North Mountain" map; The mine is so small that players will face a fierce battle at any time when they are in it. Gameres believes that the reason for opening up two new battlefields, one large and one small, is largely due to the concept of "content is king", hoping to provide players with two new scenarios with more game space and use them as content carriers for a series of new gameplay, so as to further diversify the game experience and ultimately meet the needs of players for more diverse "tactical games".
Presson Mine: Create a new scenario of CQB combat and lead a breakthrough in FPS mobile game experience
Taking the mine cave as an example, in addition to the dark mine tunnels, the abandoned office area, prison and other areas are almost composed of dense and scattered small rooms with high and low levels, so the dark atmosphere and rugged terrain are also the biggest characteristics of the map.
This means that in such a cramped and gloomy environment, players need to be ready to face the face-to-face encounters that break out in corners and bunkers at all times, and also need to be on guard against the sneak attack of the "rat man" who sets up a gun in the door and window and hides behind the door, and is always in an immersive and tense PVP "tactical game" atmosphere.
Not only that, players can also encounter the "boy team" led by bosses Borrero and Steve in the mine, which echoes the main plot around the conflict between Borrero and Stephen in prison this season, conforming to the direction of world view expansion, bringing players a greater sense of immersion;
On the other hand, many up masters and anchors have successively said that the intensity of the "men's group" has increased dramatically this season, and it is very difficult to shoot head-on as before, and players need to formulate more detailed tactical strategies and make full use of the environmental characteristics of the mine cave such as multiple bunkers and multiple corners in order to break through at points.
In Gameres' view, this is most likely due to the official hope to increase the strength of the "boy group" and guide players to think about how to better formulate and execute tough tactics in a different environment, so as to enjoy a more challenging, but also more exciting and rewarding PVE experience.
It is not difficult to see that whether it is the horizontal expansion of the PVP experience or the vertical ascension of the PVE experience, the core driving factors behind it are all derived from the unique map design of the mine, and this experience of enjoying close-range gunfight in a closed indoor environment has an accurate term in the military field - CQB (indoor close-quarters combat).
Although looking back at the history of FPS development, there are many early masterpieces such as "Rainbow Six: Siege" and "Ready to Fight" that better interpret the thrill of CQB, but it is important to know that on the mobile side, this special FPS experience was almost blank before, and it was not until the attempt of "Dark Zone Breakout" that a CQB combat scene was truly constructed in the field of mobile games, which not only achieved a breakthrough in the CQB experience from 0 to 1, but also brought players more diverse "tactical game" fun.
Although at first glance the game of the mine is very difficult, it cannot be ignored that it also has the characteristics of small map, intensive resources, and short game time, which allows players to reap more considerable returns than before in the faster-paced "tactical game".
Elmira Mine: Build an open-ended combat scenario to expand the experience of multi-genre players
As the mother map of the mine "Elmira Mining Area", its terrain structure is almost composed of mountains, the map is also divided into 13 areas such as Elmira Village, Washing Factory, etc., different areas are full of various buildings, the whole presents a complex and changeable terrain and large height difference.
Gameres believes that the reason why the mining map is designed like this, and additional off-road vehicles are added for players to drive, is essentially the official hope to build a more open combat scene, the initiative of the "tactical game" will be handed over to players, so that players of all genres can freely choose their own survival and combat methods, rather than being forced to integrate into the dangerous environment to find life as in the past.
For example, the most direct thing we can associate with is that given the huge map and many high-altitude gun points, the "snipers" can be said to be at home here.
The addition of the new system of "Vehicle" not only solves the basic pain point of "mobility", but also brings many new changes to the player experience.
First of all, in terms of vehicle design, it continues the consistent adherence to realism and immersion in "Dark Zone Breakout", and the polishing of every detail is highly consistent with the logic of reality.
For example, you need a car key to drive, and if you steal someone else's car but don't have the key, you can only stare dryly; The whole driving process is from a first-person perspective, and the driving feel, logic and reality are the same; Different parts of the vehicle have different feedback on hits, tires are most likely to burst, windshields will be broken if they are hit too much, and the body made of iron sheets has a clear bulletproof effect, etc.
Focusing on a more tangible experiential dimension, with the support of vehicles, the "Gun Rig" can not only complete a more efficient team strategy transfer with his teammates, but also enjoy the thrill of a "firepower car" when encountering enemies while driving. At the same time, the high-speed moving vehicles also provide them with a certain solution to fight against the new version of the powerful "Sniper".
Even on major social media, there are "leisure parties" who simply treat "Dark Zone Breakout" as a racing game, without fighting or picking up garbage, focusing on enjoying the immersive thrill of "dark zone drag racing".
In addition, the enhancement of the "boy group" in the mine is accompanied by the increasing "humanization" of the man-machine in the mining area, and they will even launch flares to call their companions when they encounter players, so that they can actively adjust their tactical strategies to deal with it by bringing players a stronger sense of urgency. Behind this, it is obvious that the game hopes to use more details to package, expand the fun of the PVE experience, and enhance the immersion of the game.
It is not difficult to see that with the opening of the S7 season, whether it is in a mining cave with CQB experience as the core, or a mining area with a larger area and higher content openness, players of all genres can find their own way of survival, and their experience has also ushered in a new round of expansion with the enhancement of the "boy group" and the addition of new variables such as vehicles and airdrops.
It can be said that since its launch more than a year ago, it is the endless stream of high-quality content that has achieved an increasingly diversified player experience, and the success of the S7 season has once again reflected the gene of "content is king" of "Dark Zone Breakout", which is also the core reason why it has been able to move from niche to public step by step.
However, at this point, there is another question worth pondering, why does the project team always have accurate insight into what players know and think, and release the content they like to see again and again? In Gameres' view, the driving force behind this is inseparable from the increasingly deep "content tacit understanding" between players and the project team.
The essence of the market is supply and demand, players create demand, and games meet demand. At first, the original intention of the birth of "Dark Zone Breakout" was to meet the increasingly diversified FPS experience needs of mobile game users through a new closed-loop of content of "resource collection + tactical game + survival evacuation + in-game cultivation".
However, after experiencing the tepid initial stage of the launch, I believe that "what to do next" must be a difficult problem in front of the project team at that time.
Looking back at the present, it is not difficult to find that their choice is to draw inspiration from the experience that players are keen on and the content they love, strive to find the "tacit understanding of content" between the two sides, continue to get close to players, listen to players' opinions, and continue to promote content iteration with the concept of "working together to create and go both ways".
Planning 117 to be the UP master and communicate with players has become a good story in the industry, for example, within the framework of the content of "tactical game", players spontaneously created fancy genres such as running knife boys, rat people, snipers, etc., and wantonly "whole work" in major social media, during which there are many operations such as "American-style home" developed by using game bugs.
However, in the face of such a phenomenon, the attitude of the project team is not to restrict it, but to continuously strengthen the player's pursuit of various novel experiences on the road of content iteration, such as the mine design of S7, which most likely carries the "bad intentions" of the official attempt to strengthen the conflict between the gang gun party and the rat people.
In addition, for example, based on the player's love for the game's plot content, the official will launch high-quality PV every major version; Based on the content preference of players' entertainment, they have taken the initiative to open columns such as "Dark Zone Billboard" and "Dark Zone to Revitalize", and there are countless attempts to continue to work together.
In the long run, the official and the player have not only established a more reliable emotional bond, but also gradually created a sustainable virtuous circle based on the "tacit understanding of content", which in turn promoted the continuous emergence of high-quality content, fed back the gene of "content is king" of "Dark Zone Breakout", and provided long-term momentum for "Dark Zone Breakout" from niche to popular.
If it is said that "Dark Zone Breakout" at the beginning of its launch, it is more just to complete the landing of "tactical game" on the mobile terminal, and fill the gap in the subdivision of the FPS mobile game field with the attitude of "founder"; After the launch of the S7 season, with the launch of a series of innovative content, the player's experience has been further expanded, and the work has also realized the identity transformation from "founder" to "pioneer", further leading the "tactical game" from the niche to the masses. In Gameres' view, today's work has become more and more clearly showing the different content characteristics from traditional "tactical game" products, and has effectively carried the banner of promoting the long-term development of the FPS track.
And the underlying support that makes all this happen, in the final analysis, is its "content is king" product gene, which will also make it go further in the future.